Denarau Island () is a small private resort development on the western side of
Viti Levu in the Republic of
Fiji
Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...
. The 2.55 km
2 resort is reached via a short causeway over a creek and is located 5 km north west of the town
Nadi
Nadi (pronounced ) is the third-largest conurbation in Fiji. It is located on the western side of the main island of Viti Levu, and had a population of 42,284 at the most recent census, in 2007. A 2012 estimate showed that the population had ...
and 10 km west of
Nadi International Airport
Nadi International Airport is the main international airport of Fiji as well as an important regional hub for the South Pacific islands, located by the coast on the western side of the main island Viti Levu. Owned and operated by Fiji Airports ...
.
Denarau is known for its hotels and resorts, with the 18-hole Denarau Golf course as its centrepiece. The development includes international chains such as
Hilton
Hilton or Hylton may refer to:
Companies
* Hilton Worldwide Holdings, Inc., a global hospitality company based in the United States that owns several hotel chains and subsidiary companies containing the Hilton name
** Hilton Hotels & Resorts, fla ...
,
Sheraton,
Radisson
Radisson Hotels is an international hotel chain headquartered in the United States. A division of the Radisson Hotel Group, it operates the brands Radisson Blu, Radisson RED, Radisson Collection, Country Inn & Suites, and Park Inn by Radisso ...
,
Westin,
Sofitel and
Wyndham (formerly Worldmark).
Denarau Marina is located in Denarau Island and provides sea transfer services to the island chains of the
Mamanucas and the
Yasawas.
Port Denarau, as well as containing Denarau Marina, is a shopping precinct with a variety of restaurants, a supermarket, bakery, hairdressers and tour operators.
History
The development of Denarau Island started in 1969, when American developer Dennis McElrath purchased the land. The first hotel, the
Regent of Fiji (now the Westin Denarau) opened in 1975.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190128151452/https://www.denarau.com/history/] Between 1988 and 1991, Japanese property developer
EIE International
was a Japanese billionaire property developer and the head of EIE International Corp.
Early life
Harunori Takahashi came from a prominent family in western Japan, near Nagasaki, and was descended from a pre-war Prime Minister. His father Yosh ...
purchased all of Denarau in stages and started on a $200 million development project, bulldozing 850 acres of
mangrove forest
Mangrove forests, also called mangrove swamps, mangrove thickets or mangals, are productive wetlands that occur in coastal intertidal zones. Mangrove forests grow mainly at tropical and subtropical latitudes because mangroves cannot withstand fr ...
and building an 18-hole
golf course
A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". Th ...
, a marina and more hotels.
After EIE went bankrupt in 1995, the resort was purchased by a consortium of Tabua Investments of New Zealand, ITT Sheraton and
Air Pacific.
References
External links
Denarau Island Resort website*
Populated places in Fiji
Islands of Fiji
Ba Province
Viti Levu
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